Cast hopper door



May 19, 1931. G. G. GILPIN 1,805,664

CAST HOPPER DOQR' Filed Jan. 27, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Qorn/e May 19,1931. G. G. GlLPlN CAST HOPPER DOOR Filed Jan. 27, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2Fig- 8 Patented May 19, `1931 eriierir e. Giiiriiv, or DivnitsiDii,iLDiNois, Assreiion 'reunion PRCDUCrsj Coli/rimini?,vor Ciliioaeo,iiiiiinois, A Coieroien'rioii or DELAWARE Casa: iiorralr. DoonAApplication filed January 2*?, 1928. Serial No. 250,003.

My invention relates to the construction ot railway cars having s, dropdoo-rs, suoli as hopper cars, hopper gondola cars, d-ropbottom orgeneral service gondola cars, mill type 5' gondolas, having drop enddoors, or the like,

having a door forming" a part of the car for retaining the load`therein, which door is provided withl hinges adjacent one of itsedgesand is capable of being dropped7 or swung 10A open. Y Any meansofraising the door to the closed position and any means for locking andreleasing the door may he employed with my device. y A door for thispurpose must be very 15 stro-ng and durable because:

First, itis apart of the licor of vthefcar and as such must sustainY theload as well as the impact blow of the load when the car is 'in motion.Second, the car is frequentlylload# 20' ed from chutes or tipples froma'heght of ten feet or more, causing the load to be dropped directlyupon the doors. Third, clam shell buckets are frequently used toiunloadsuch cars and itis not uncommonv for 251 these bucketsto rest upon anddrag over the doors. Fourth, when the door suddenly comes to rest afterbeing dropped, it is not only subjected toa seyere shock but it mustsustain the severe impact thrust or" the load 310' which of coursefollows the door.

the load is theoretically equally distributed,

the door must be strong over. its entire area and must be capable oftransmitting the resulting stresses to the car body without much i,deiiection and no substantial distortion.

Any bending of the door or drooping of the corners would cause a leak ofthe lading, especially of such linematerial as sand, chats, etc. Anybending ro-r warping might interi0 ere with the complete closing andlocking oi"k the door.

An object of the invention is to provide a door o cast metal, preferablymalleable iron o-r cast steel, having a. panel portion forming a flooror Wall of a car and to reinforce such panel with cast integral membersand to ifoi'mV and shape the entire door so that it will not be deformedby warping when cooling, and furthermore, vwill eliminate shrinkagecracks and internal stresses.

inra, as f yBoth cast metal and annealed cast metal1 citer' greaterresistance to corrosion (and similar chemical actions) than rolledsteel,`

f owing tothe texture of the metal. `Wlien-A rolled steel is deformedbetween,V dies (whether heated or not) the fibres on the tension sideor" the metal are opened-up or separated byv stretching, whilethelibres; on tli'e compression side of the metal'a're forced'fto-Agethei and upset. vBothsnch openingiipl and upsetting actions 'disruptsthe 'hoino- 'geneity ofthe ibres, thus permitting the entranceoiimoisture therebetween and aug! inenting corrosion, therefore,anotlieirobject* is to provide a door more capa-ble" to resist@corrosion. Railway ears'arel not onlysubject; tothe usual atmosphericconditions but are.' subject to chemical actionso certain loads, suchas, for instance, wet coal' which forms sulpliuric acid;` l y ln thedrawings: l Fig. il' showsa portionwith my ldeviceapplied thereon.

Fig. 2 is a,section:Onliney Q-Qof'Fitg. 1f- Fig'. 3" is a sectionoiilinejSl-of 'F ig. l.' f l Fig.y 41 is af detail of the' door yrionithe` undersiile.`

Figo is a section 'on line'Lo o'fFig 4.-., 'A Fig. 'G'i's a section4online 6"-6'oii Fivv Figs. 7 and 8' are 'inodiiri'edforms' of vention. yl lncasting a door having aii'integral depending,` flange extendingaround all four of l its sidesg'the liquid steelisv j irefer'ablypouredthrough at plurality" of gates" into the vpanelf' portion ofl thedoorffroiii whence iti flows into j the integral ii'an'ge. Theylo'vi'ier -portion ofthe of' ya railway' oar j flange, therefore,coolsl ir's't: andfoiiiers resist` is provided .which me'rges'into'opposite porpanel portionu'iro'uld'.breakl one end (or may be bothends) oif'the *transversefrib away from? the integralflange or cause arupture ofthev lower side of the transverserib.' These are panel.Sometimes these stresses are not sufficient to crack and sever the metalbut cause internal (latent) stresses which when increased by a loadimposed upon the door become sufficient to (and do) break the door.

To illustrate one adaptation of my device, I have shown a so-calledgeneral service7 vdrop bottom gondola car wherein the major portion ofthe floor consists of drop doors. The door openings are surrunded by thecenter construction 1, side wall 2 and cross diaphragme 3. In normal orclosed position the door completely closes this opening and in fact is atrifle larger on all sides than the opening so as to provide a lap jointbetween the door and the car frame member. The doors are hinged to thecenter construction and are suj ported adjacent the side wall by theraising or locking mechanism. Any convenient stop may be used vto limitthe downward movement of the door.

The cast metal door comprises a panel 5 with a continuous dependingintegral flange 6 rextending around all four sides of the panel. v Y

The door is provided with a secondary rib 7 crossing each corner withits opposite ends merging into the depending flange 6 and a veo primaryrib 8 connecting two of the secondary ribs which may be on the same sideof the door, as shown in Fig. 4l, or in diagonally opposite corners ofthe door, as shown in Fig. 8. y

The door may further be strengthened by 'reinforcing ribs 9 extendingparallel with the primary ribs 8, as shown in Fig. l, or may extendangularly thereto, as shown in Fig. 7.

In order to prevent shrinkage in cooling from breaking the reinforcingribs away from their adjacent members Iv prefer to form them on curvesor to wave them, or broadly speaking, to form them in some other than astraight line.

In Fig. 7 the arcuate secondary ribs -20 are connected by arcuateprimary ribs 21 and by arcuate transverse reinforcing ribs 22.

In Fig. 8 the arcuate secondary ribs 30 merge into the primary arcuatereinforcing ribs 31, which in turn, merge together adjacent the middleportion of the door. Y

The hinge lugs 15 are cast integral with the depending flange 6 and someof the reinforcing ribs preferably terminate into the panel adjacent'theintegral hinge lugs so as to carryv their stresses to the hinges.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of theinvention, though it is to be understood that the invention is notlimited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as itis obvious that various modifications thereof within the scope of theclaims will occur to persons skilled in the art.

In applications Serial No.-2l9,999; No. 250,000; No. 250,001 and No.250,002, all

Leoaeea filed January 27, 1928, I have disclosed and claimed certainfeatures disclosed but not claimed herein.

I claim:

1. A hinged door for a railway car consisting of an integral castingcomprising a panel with a continuous flange adjacent its perimeter, asecondary rib crossing each corner with its opposite ends merging intothe flange, and a primary rib connecting the secondary ribs on the sameside of the door.

2. A hinged door for a railway car consisting of'an integral castingcomprising a panel with a continuous flange adjacent its perimeter, asecondary rib crossing each corner with its opposite ends merging intothe flange, and a curved primary rib connecting the secondary ribs onthe same side of the door.

3. A hinged door for a railway car consisting of an integral castingcomprising a panel with a continuous flange adjacent its perimeter, asecondary rib crossing each corner with its opposite ends merging intothe flange, 'and a primary rib connecting the secondary ribs on the sameside of the door, and other ribs connecting said primary ribs.

4. A hinged door for a railway car consisting of an integral castingcomprising a panel with a continuous flange adjacent its perimeter, asecondary rib crossing each corner with its opposite ends merging intothe flange, a primary rib connecting the secondary ribs on the same sideof the door, and another rib substantially parallel to the primary ribs.

' GARTI-I G. GILPIN.

